When we were young and living in Geneva, we built many
tree forts, and even a fort in the attic, all at my older brother, Arnon’s,
instigation.
A few things we did in wintertime were:
--The igloo came along the winter we had so much
snow that we could tunnel out the drift between the road and the sidewalk. We
could go from one side of our lot to the other (200 feet?) under the snow,
pausing in the open only at the driveway.
This year, we were rolling snowballs for a fort when
Arn suggested we make an igloo. We were game and rolled many which he placed in
a circle, lifting the second and third layers up as we padded snow around to
hold them. The arch principle held them in place and we even had an entry way
attached!
Arnon, Esther, Ruth, Ethel
Doris, Harold, Lucille 1933
--The snow slide was another product of Arn’s
ingenuity. Placing three or four or five large snowballs in a row, we built up
one end up to about five feet, and made a wide gradual slope down. We reached
the top of the slide via the old step ladder which we leaned against it. Then we’d
lie down on our stomachs and away we’d go! Each night of its life we faithfully
watered it to make it beautifully slippery.
To go out to play, we’d wear old coats and mittens.
The coats were usually long outgrown and the sleeves never met the mittens, so
all winter long we’d wear a bracelet of chapped skin around each wrist. We wore, as we did to school, long tan
colored cotton stockings. We never had leggings until lucky me, sometime in 6th
or 7th grade, someone gave our family a snowsuit which fit me!
Esther, Ruth, Arnon
Harold, Doris, Lucille
On our feet we wore boots with clunky metal clasps,
and a more difficult task of unclasping these two or three clasps on each boot,
when covered with snow and frozen ice cannot be imagined. Your frozen fingers
refused to cooperate!
What fun we had!
Pat Kinsella Herdeg and Glenn
Happy New Year to All! May 2019 be a year of Good
Health, Grand Adventures and Peace for all of us.
2 comments:
As usual, CB, I enjoy your stories of when you were a "kid". It is good to have sharp long-term memories.
Growing up in the city, I never did these winter things. I remember sitting on my front porch steps watching the sidewalk snow plow go by. It was made of wood and drawn by a prancing horse!
Evelyn
Great pictures of Mom's family when everyone was young.
Harold sure was cute when he was small, but hard to recognize with hair!
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